Re: It's legal to crack Apple II copy protection

[dalloff@gcfn.org (Dave Althoff Jr)]

Frank Townsend (ftownsen@nospam.net) wrote:
: > Of course this only applies to copying, not distribution. Does the DMCA
: > have anything to say about abandonware, or would that be beyond it's
: > scope?

: Yes, beyond its scope.

: And unlike trademark law (where abandonment  causes the trademark owner to
: forfeit his legal protections) copyrights are enforceable as long as the
: work is still within its copyright term.

This is where things can get sticky.  Copyright enforcement requires
action on the part of the copyright holder (which is why it is odd that
the RIAA,the BSA, or any other organization which is NOT a copyright holder,
would have any business trying to enforce someone else's copyright, but
that's another issue altogether...).  Therefore, while abandonware is
still technically copyrighted material, if it really is abandonware, it
isn't going to be subject to copyright enforcement, by definition.  After
all, if the copyright holder decides to enforce his rights under
copyright, then clearly it isn't really abandonware anymore.  More like
'embargoware', I guess.

Trouble is, if you want to go into business distributing abandoned
software, you won't know if the software is truly abandoned until the
copyright holder finds out about it and tells you to C&D.  Or worse.

--Dave Althoff, ][.
-- 
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